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An underground view of an academic conference
An underground view of an academic conference
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An underground view of an academic conference - Including unauthorized visits to the women’s bathroom and a breakdown on the interstate highway
Bill is a member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC). This organization’s annual conference in 2009 is held at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bill and a fellow member of the Society drive to Kalamazoo from St. Paul, Minnesota, to attend the conference.
The three-day conference features papers presented from civilization scholars around the world. Bill himself chairs a session. He tries to explain the mechanism for the decay of civilizations in terms of what he calls “self-conscious” thinking. He also befriends an artist from Boston who believes that prehistoric cave drawings were an early form of writing.
In this otherwise staid academic gathering, Bill notices two good-looking, well-dressed women taping the sessions with a video camera. It turns out that they are from a teacher’s institute in Siberia. Bill attends their session which is about moral instruction in Russian schools. The current government of Russia is trying to revive studies in Russian Orthodox Christianity as a means of strengthening Russian identity.
The dormitory arrangements are a problem at this conference. The two sexes have to be lodged in the same building. Because more men than women are attending the conference, some of the male participants, including Bill, have to be placed in the “women’s wing” of the building. The bathroom immediately across the hall is designated as a woman’s bathroom even though it has a urinal while the bathroom in the other wing of the building does not.
Bill is worried about having frequently to use the bathroom at night. The official “men’s” bathroom, which seems more suitable for women, is in the other wing of the building while the one across the hall is officially off limits to men. After someone tells Bill it is all right to use the bathroom across the hall, he uses it without incident for the rest of the conference and even takes showers.
Bill’s friend from St. Paul tells him that some women have been complaining about men using their bathrooms. Bill thinks he is talking about someone else. Then, on the final evening of the conference, Bill again enters the bathroom across the hall. When he looks up, he sees one of the Russian women looking back at him. She seems to be smiling. Bill beats a hasty retreat.
Now the conference is over. Bill and his friend drive back to Minnesota, a distance of five hundred miles. Twenty miles south of Tomah, Wisconsin, there is a loud screeching noise. The car scrapes the pavement for several hundred feet and then comes to a halt in the passing lane next to a concrete construction barrier.
It is a dangerous situation. The friend tries to flag approaching traffic while Bill walks toward a road sign so he can read their location. Eventually, a truck stops to help. The driver attaches a rope from the car’s front bumper to the back of the truck and hauls the car across the highway to the shoulder on the other side as another truck blocks traffic.
When the state trooper does arrive, the friend arranges for a tow truck to move the disabled car to a repair shop in Tomah. There is a further problem: The friend has to be at work at 6:00 a.m. on the following day. Bill borrows the cell phone and calls a friend in Minneapolis. The friend agrees to drive the 160 miles between Minneapolis and Tomah to pick up Bill and his friend.
On the way back to Minnesota, Bill excitedly tells his friend from Minneapolis about the conference. He then realizes that this has been quite an adventure. Not only was he exposed to interesting ideas about civilization but also to the “human” aspect of attending academic conferences.
This is the fifth in a series of Bill Mack’s personal adventure stories. Bill, a college-prepared idealist, is someone ready to act on his ideas even if some of them are unrealistic. In this case, Bill encounters personal drama at a conference intended to discuss themes of world history.
Bill is a member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC). This organization’s annual conference in 2009 is held at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bill and a fellow member of the Society drive to Kalamazoo from St. Paul, Minnesota, to attend the conference.
The three-day conference features papers presented from civilization scholars around the world. Bill himself chairs a session. He tries to explain the mechanism for the decay of civilizations in terms of what he calls “self-conscious” thinking. He also befriends an artist from Boston who believes that prehistoric cave drawings were an early form of writing.
In this otherwise staid academic gathering, Bill notices two good-looking, well-dressed women taping the sessions with a video camera. It turns out that they are from a teacher’s institute in Siberia. Bill attends their session which is about moral instruction in Russian schools. The current government of Russia is trying to revive studies in Russian Orthodox Christianity as a means of strengthening Russian identity.
The dormitory arrangements are a problem at this conference. The two sexes have to be lodged in the same building. Because more men than women are attending the conference, some of the male participants, including Bill, have to be placed in the “women’s wing” of the building. The bathroom immediately across the hall is designated as a woman’s bathroom even though it has a urinal while the bathroom in the other wing of the building does not.
Bill is worried about having frequently to use the bathroom at night. The official “men’s” bathroom, which seems more suitable for women, is in the other wing of the building while the one across the hall is officially off limits to men. After someone tells Bill it is all right to use the bathroom across the hall, he uses it without incident for the rest of the conference and even takes showers.
Bill’s friend from St. Paul tells him that some women have been complaining about men using their bathrooms. Bill thinks he is talking about someone else. Then, on the final evening of the conference, Bill again enters the bathroom across the hall. When he looks up, he sees one of the Russian women looking back at him. She seems to be smiling. Bill beats a hasty retreat.
Now the conference is over. Bill and his friend drive back to Minnesota, a distance of five hundred miles. Twenty miles south of Tomah, Wisconsin, there is a loud screeching noise. The car scrapes the pavement for several hundred feet and then comes to a halt in the passing lane next to a concrete construction barrier.
It is a dangerous situation. The friend tries to flag approaching traffic while Bill walks toward a road sign so he can read their location. Eventually, a truck stops to help. The driver attaches a rope from the car’s front bumper to the back of the truck and hauls the car across the highway to the shoulder on the other side as another truck blocks traffic.
When the state trooper does arrive, the friend arranges for a tow truck to move the disabled car to a repair shop in Tomah. There is a further problem: The friend has to be at work at 6:00 a.m. on the following day. Bill borrows the cell phone and calls a friend in Minneapolis. The friend agrees to drive the 160 miles between Minneapolis and Tomah to pick up Bill and his friend.
On the way back to Minnesota, Bill excitedly tells his friend from Minneapolis about the conference. He then realizes that this has been quite an adventure. Not only was he exposed to interesting ideas about civilization but also to the “human” aspect of attending academic conferences.
This is the fifth in a series of Bill Mack’s personal adventure stories. Bill, a college-prepared idealist, is someone ready to act on his ideas even if some of them are unrealistic. In this case, Bill encounters personal drama at a conference intended to discuss themes of world history.
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